The EPOS Impact 1000 sounds a tad better than the XM5 imo. What's crazy though is you would think headsets designed for calls/meetings would sound better in 2024. If I could only choose one however, it would be the XM5.
Whenever you add noise cancellation to any microphone, there's a slight trade off of voice quality for the benefit of being heard clearly in noisy environments. Aside from the microphone quality, the other factors mentioned are very important to consider in order to make the proper buying decision. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
I love the in depth reviews you guys are doing! I'm having an issue with my XM5 WF ear buds and WH headphones I bought a set to use for making phone calls while doing hybrid work. I'm using a business cell mostly. For some reason the mic noise cancellation feature is not working for me at all. When I first tested it out with firmware 3.2.1 it worked great better than I expected. The headphones WH however never worked in cancelling background noise for calls like in the reviews which I found odd. After the update however for the buds, they seem to not work at all as well when it comes to mic noise cancellation. I am really bummed out because the buds worked at first and I experienced how cool it was to have that feature. Am I connecting it wrong? Should I not be using the app? Should I reset them somehow? Does simultaneous connection make it less effective? Since you're the expert I thought I'd reach out to you first before I return them because I reached out to Sony as well and no one knows how to resolve the issue. Sorry for the long comment but I thought I'd share all the info just in case there were more details needed. Thanks!
Thanks for your feedback! I wish we could be of more assistance but we're not sure why the mic noise cancellation isn't working. If you have an iPhone or Android phone you can try turning on voice isolation or noise suppression to see if that helps. Any earbuds we've tested usually don't do the best to block out the background noise.
We haven't personally tested many gaming headsets to give you our thoughts but there are nice gaming headsets to consider and some customers do use them, but that's usually in cases where someones maybe working at home buying a headset for themself. Most companies don't invest in music headphones or gaming headsets for a team of people.
What about the Jabra Evolve 2 85. Isn't a better match to compare with the Sony? Noise of my environment disturbing me is my issue. I want the best noise cancelling for my ears.
The Evolve2 85 would be a good comparable to the XM5 if you prefer over-ear headphones, but this was just one example to illustrate a point, there's a ton of different options. Although the Epos Impact 1000 isnt over your ears, it does a pretty good job to reduce the background noise for your ears as well.
Business headsets degrade the voice quality by deliberately limiting the supported frequency range for the microphone substantially. That way the headset electronics can be cheap(er) and voice processing is much less challenging. Much of today's voice communication happens via TEAMS and others (even WhatsApp) as those support a much broader "natural" bandwidth. If you make calls to POTS lines trying to sell vitamins then plain business headsets may be OK because they match with the restrictions of the legacy POTS. - For today's business communications via TEAMS (or high-quality mobile phone connections) the restricted bandwidth is a real drawback. The Sony XM5 plays much better than "professional/legacy" headsets in such modern communication environments. . Receiving calls from a call center are more often than not an auditory nuisance. "Let's get over with this call as soon as possible." The headset industry is not up for this challenge yet and is outright lazy and sluggish, resting on past laurels. The more communication moves to TEAMS and others, the more the auditory quality of "business" headsets will become less acceptable. my 2cents
We appreciate your 2cents. We can agree to disagree for the reasons we outlined in this video. Given that most people rely on computers for work communication, and considering the challenges often encountered when connecting Bluetooth headsets to computers, headphones like XM5 and other comparables just aren't the best way to go for a work setting with people who are on phone calls and meetings for a living.
@@HeadsetAdvisor I criticize the professional headset makers that they limit the bandwidth of the microphone and the according signal processing that goes with it to that the old, legacy POTS standard. TEAMS and other tools can take and do take advantage of a higher bandwidth as is does not need to use the POTS. And thus, can provide much better voice quality. Unfortunately, those "professional" headsets are staying within the legacy limitation even though the call itself uses the internet or 5G connection. The Sony headset does not do this, I noticed. It takes advantage of the bandwidth that the connection offers, be it internet or 5G. Hence it delivers (under the right circumstances) a much more pleasant call experience. It is up the professional headset makers to catch up with this. I would encourage HeadsetAdvisor to include in its tests the usable microphone bandwidth a professional headset offers for internet-based calls and also say 5G calls. .
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The EPOS Impact 1000 sounds a tad better than the XM5 imo. What's crazy though is you would think headsets designed for calls/meetings would sound better in 2024. If I could only choose one however, it would be the XM5.
Whenever you add noise cancellation to any microphone, there's a slight trade off of voice quality for the benefit of being heard clearly in noisy environments. Aside from the microphone quality, the other factors mentioned are very important to consider in order to make the proper buying decision. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
I love the in depth reviews you guys are doing! I'm having an issue with my XM5 WF ear buds and WH headphones I bought a set to use for making phone calls while doing hybrid work. I'm using a business cell mostly. For some reason the mic noise cancellation feature is not working for me at all. When I first tested it out with firmware 3.2.1 it worked great better than I expected. The headphones WH however never worked in cancelling background noise for calls like in the reviews which I found odd. After the update however for the buds, they seem to not work at all as well when it comes to mic noise cancellation. I am really bummed out because the buds worked at first and I experienced how cool it was to have that feature. Am I connecting it wrong? Should I not be using the app? Should I reset them somehow? Does simultaneous connection make it less effective? Since you're the expert I thought I'd reach out to you first before I return them because I reached out to Sony as well and no one knows how to resolve the issue. Sorry for the long comment but I thought I'd share all the info just in case there were more details needed. Thanks!
Thanks for your feedback! I wish we could be of more assistance but we're not sure why the mic noise cancellation isn't working. If you have an iPhone or Android phone you can try turning on voice isolation or noise suppression to see if that helps. Any earbuds we've tested usually don't do the best to block out the background noise.
WH1000XM5 is a great headphones for listening. Its ANC is the best! But its mic performs terribly in a noisy environment.
Yep if you need a headset with a good mic reach out to our team info@headsetadvisor.com we can help
I need one, i think Evolve85 wirreless..@@HeadsetAdvisor
What about gaming headset? There are pretty solid choices out there which has noise canceling mic as well?
We haven't personally tested many gaming headsets to give you our thoughts but there are nice gaming headsets to consider and some customers do use them, but that's usually in cases where someones maybe working at home buying a headset for themself. Most companies don't invest in music headphones or gaming headsets for a team of people.
What about the Jabra Evolve 2 85. Isn't a better match to compare with the Sony? Noise of my environment disturbing me is my issue. I want the best noise cancelling for my ears.
The Evolve2 85 would be a good comparable to the XM5 if you prefer over-ear headphones, but this was just one example to illustrate a point, there's a ton of different options. Although the Epos Impact 1000 isnt over your ears, it does a pretty good job to reduce the background noise for your ears as well.
Business headsets degrade the voice quality
by deliberately limiting the supported frequency range for the microphone substantially.
That way the headset electronics can be cheap(er)
and voice processing is much less challenging.
Much of today's voice communication happens via TEAMS and others (even WhatsApp)
as those support a much broader "natural" bandwidth.
If you make calls to POTS lines trying to sell vitamins
then plain business headsets may be OK because they match with the restrictions of the legacy POTS.
-
For today's business communications via TEAMS (or high-quality mobile phone connections)
the restricted bandwidth is a real drawback.
The Sony XM5 plays much better than "professional/legacy" headsets in such modern communication environments.
.
Receiving calls from a call center are more often than not an auditory nuisance.
"Let's get over with this call as soon as possible."
The headset industry is not up for this challenge yet and is outright lazy and sluggish,
resting on past laurels.
The more communication moves to TEAMS and others,
the more the auditory quality of "business" headsets will become less acceptable.
my 2cents
We appreciate your 2cents. We can agree to disagree for the reasons we outlined in this video. Given that most people rely on computers for work communication, and considering the challenges often encountered when connecting Bluetooth headsets to computers, headphones like XM5 and other comparables just aren't the best way to go for a work setting with people who are on phone calls and meetings for a living.
@@HeadsetAdvisor
I criticize the professional headset makers
that they limit the bandwidth of the microphone and the according signal processing that goes with it
to that the old, legacy POTS standard.
TEAMS and other tools can take and do take advantage of a higher bandwidth
as is does not need to use the POTS.
And thus, can provide much better voice quality.
Unfortunately, those "professional" headsets are staying within the legacy limitation
even though the call itself uses the internet or 5G connection.
The Sony headset does not do this, I noticed.
It takes advantage of the bandwidth that the connection offers, be it internet or 5G.
Hence it delivers (under the right circumstances) a much more pleasant call experience.
It is up the professional headset makers to catch up with this.
I would encourage HeadsetAdvisor to include in its tests
the usable microphone bandwidth a professional headset offers
for internet-based calls and also say 5G calls.
.